First meeting for Shakhtar and United

FC Shakhtar Donetsk and Manchester United FC will meet for the first time when they face off at the Donbass Arena with the early leadership of Group A at stake.

• Both teams took three points on matchday one, Shakhtar winning 2-0 at Real Sociedad de Fútbol and United beating Bayer 04 Leverkusen 4-2, so a victory for either would give them a clear lead at the Group A summit.

Match background
• Shakhtar helped eliminate United's Premier League rivals Chelsea FC in last season's group stage. Mircea Lucescu's men beat the then holders 2-1 at home through goals from Alex Teixeira and Fernandinho and only lost the return fixture 3-2 after conceding in added time.

• Shakhtar have won all three previous UEFA Champions League fixtures against English visitors to Donetsk, with earlier successes against Arsenal FC in the 2000/01 first group stage (3-0) and 2010/11 group stage (2-1). Overall their home record against Premier League sides is W4 D1 L0.

• United's only previous encounters with Ukrainian opposition came against FC Dynamo Kyiv, most recently in the 2007/08 group stage when they won 4-2 in Kyiv and 4-0 in Manchester. Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney both found the net in Ukraine, while Rooney was also on target at Old Trafford.

• Ryan Giggs played in the English champions' first visit to Ukraine, a 0-0 draw at Dynamo in their opening match of the 2000/01 first group stage.

• Shakhtar won their opening two home games in the 2012/13 group stage but then lost 1-0 to Juventus and drew 2-2 with Borussia Dortmund in the last 16. United's results on the road followed an identical pattern as they won twice before losing 1-0 at Galatasaray AŞ and then drawing 1-1 at Real Madrid CF in an ultimately losing effort in the round of 16.

Team ties
• As an FC Dinamo Bucureşti player, Lucescu made his debut in UEFA club competition in a 1-1 home draw with West Bromwich Albion FC in the 1968/69 European Cup Winners' Cup second round. Two years later he played for Romania against England in a 1-0 defeat in the 1970 FIFA World Cup group stage. He coached Romania when they drew home and away with England in qualifying for the 1986 World Cup finals, narrowly missing a return to Mexico.

• As coach of FC Internazionale Milano, Lucescu suffered UEFA Champions League elimination against United in the 1998/99 quarter-finals. Giggs played in both matches as that season's eventual winners prevailed 2-0 at Old Trafford before a 1-1 draw in Italy. Phil Neville, now United's first-team coach, was a late substitute at San Siro.

• On 2 October 2003 Lucescu oversaw a 2-0 UEFA Champions League victory at Chelsea for Beşiktaş JK, though the Istanbul club later lost by the same score at home to the London side and had to settle for third place in their group.

• David Moyes' Everton FC came from behind twice to win 3-2 at FC Metalist Kharkiv in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round, completing a 4-3 aggregate success.

• Rooney scored past Andriy Pyatov at the Donbass Arena when England beat Ukraine 1-0 to eliminate the co-hosts from UEFA EURO 2012, booking their own quarter-final place. Ashley Young, Danny Welbeck and Shakhtar's Yaroslav Rakitskiy also featured in that match on 19 June 2012.

• Pyatov kept a clean sheet when Ukraine drew 0-0 at home to England in World Cup qualifying in Kyiv on 10 September. Olexandr Kucher, Taras Stepanenko and Vyacheslav Shevchuk also featured for the home team, with Young and Tom Cleverley second-half substitutes for England.

• On 2 June this year Bernard was a late substitute in the Brazil side held 2-2 at home by an England team featuring Rooney – scorer of the visitors' second goal – along with Michael Carrick and Phil Jones.

• Rooney scored twice for England in a 4-2 victory over a Croatia side that included substitute Darijo Srna at UEFA EURO 2004. Srna was in the Croatia team that won 3-2 at Wembley to eliminate England in UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying.

• Eduardo played with Robin van Persie at Arsenal between 2007 and 2010. The Croatia striker neither scored nor finished on the winning side in four attempts against United, including a substitute appearance in Arsenal's UEFA Champions League semi-final first-leg defeat at Old Trafford in 2008/09.

• Serhiy Kryvtsov was in the Ukraine team that beat Welbeck's England 2-0 in the 2009 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final at Donetsk's RSC Olympiyskiy Stadium.

• Anderson and Ilsinho were members of the Brazil squad which took bronze at the 2008 Olympic Football Tournament in Beijing.

• Rafael, Fábio and Alex Teixeira played together for Brazil at the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Korea Republic. Rafael later made his Brazil debut in the same game as Wellington Nem – a friendly against Denmark in May 2012.